It's no secret that VMware is moving away from the Windows/C#-based vSphere Client and the Adobe Flash-based vSphere Web Client over to an HTML5/JavaScript combo that is far faster, and much more universal. These web UIs arrived in the form of the VMware Host Client (source) that's baked right in to ESXi 6.0U2 or later, and the new vSphere Client (source) that is baked right into VCSA 6.5 or later. It's about time, and no secret that I hope this transition period is over with as quickly as possible, see also my clumsily-titled:

Click twice for a nice close look at all those UIs, best viewed fullscreen at 1920x1080. Notice how they appear like Windows Applications, each with their own Taskbar shortcut.

But there's an issue with using a browser for all VMware vSphere admin. The possibility of extensions messing things up, and the vertical real estate. Let me illustrate with an animation that demonstrates the benefits of reduced clutter, and what up to 73 extra pixels vertically really means.

It looks like you have JavaScript disabled. Click here to view the video above.

Turns out you can get a little creative with the newer Add to desktop option. The next tweak was to get around Chrome's removal of the Application Shortcut feature with some simple editing of the shortcut properties. This combination gets Chrome to cooperate, and I suspect you'll love the results. I know I do! Well worth just a few minutes of your time.

These shortcuts will make this period of transition for VMware's many UIs a bit easier to cope with. Eventually, you should be able to do everything through HTML5 UIs, but we're not there yet.

Should you not like to use your taskbar, and are more of a folder person, no problem. Should you like Shortcut keys assignments for these launcher icons, that's easy to do to, just go to the properties of the shortcut, and use the Shortcut key field. These instructions can be altered for your needs.

Chrome Version 57.0.2987.98 (64 bit), but note that it still uses the Program Files (x86) directory, these instructions should work with 32 bit Chrome as well

VMware vSphere VCSA 6.5.0b (any 6.0 version or later should behave similarly)

ESXi 6.5.0a (any 5.5 version or later should behave similarly)

My less snappy original title was rather informative, but also rather long:How to create a Chrome Application Shortcut in your Windows taskbar for vSphere Web Client and vSphere HTML5 Web Client, appifying your browser's UI!

Here's a more snappy title, more link-baity:Use Chrome like a boss, for VMware admin, shortcuts that transmogrify your Web UIs into apps!'

Once you get the hang of it, you may fall so in love with these icons that you go forward with creating a few more for frequently used browser UIs like NASs, routers, etc. Don't forget to drop a quick comments below to let us know how this worked out for you.

click on the create a user icon near the top-right of the Chrome window, click 'Manage People' then 'ADD PERSON' naming it vSphere and choosing a color you like, which creates separate extension-free environment just for your vSphere sysadmin UIs

maximize the Chrome window, turn on the bookmarks bar with Ctrl+Shift+B, then close Chrome to save window size
Disable the pop-up blocking for the 'VMware Host Client' and the 'Welcome to vCenter' UIs

launch Chrome again, then launch tabs with each of the following 5 UIs using FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names), substituting your FQDN for the ".lab.local" demonstrated, authenticating into each of these UIs:
a. Welcome to vCenterhttps://vcsa.lab.local
where vcsa.lab.local is replaced by the FQDN of your VCSA appliance (or vCenter)
b. VMware Host clienthttps://xd-1541-5028d.lab.local
where xd-1541-5028d.lab.local is replaced by the name of your ESXi host(s), repeat for each host you have in your lab
c. VAMIhttps://vcsa.lab.local:5480
e. vSphere Web Client (Flash, full functionality)https://vcsa.lab.local/vsphere-client
f. vSphere Client (HTML5 UI, partial functionality)https://vcsa.lab.local/ui
you should get a save password prompt, to optionally save your username/password (warning - very dangerous to do this, easy for anybody to extract this key info to use for nefarious purposes, especially easy if your filesystem isn't encrypted)

in Chrome, in both the VMware Host Client and the Welcome to vCenter UIs, turn off pop-up blocking by left-clicking on the word "Secure" to the left of the https:// in the address bar area

optionally download and install the latest VMware vSphere Client (C#) for direct ESXi host legacy administration (it won't let you log in to vCenter anymore, this is not shown in the video)

optionally download VMRC (VMware Remote Console) from vmware.com/go/download-vmrc, install, then test various console connection types to a VM to ensure functionality (I skipped this important step in the video)

You may run into an issue where a Chrome Shortcut or bookmark that you created previously doesn't work after an upgrade to a newer VCSA, displaying only a blank white window. Or you may just have trouble logging in and seeing anything in https://vcsa.lab.local/ui. I noticed this right after upgrading to 6.5 U1 (Update 1) the easy way, and the fix to this issue was easy too.

The fix

in Chrome Browser, open the following tab by copying the below line into your clipboard, then opening a new tab and pasting into your URL field:chrome://settings/content/cookies

scroll down to All cookies and site data

under the Search cookies field, type vcsa, replacing vcsa with the name or IP of your VCSA appliance)

it's easiest to simply click on REMOVE ALL SHOWN, but you can also try to open each section and delete just the cookies for URLs that include vcsa/ui

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